Winter fairy tale tour Kyrgyzstan

Once you arrive at the airport, you will be picked up at the agreed meeting point by the driver I trust. Most likely you will arrive together with the others from the group. In any case, I will try to synchronize the flights so that this works out. After about four hours of driving you will arrive in Cholponata.

The starting point of our tour is the town of Cholponata. In summer - the hotspot for local tourism, in winter we will probably have the town to ourselves. Even though the tourist crowds stay away in winter, cafes, restaurants and a couple of other interesting spots are open, so we will find plenty of things to do here. The town sits right on the shores of Issyk-Kul. "Issyk" means "hot," which never made sense to me given the freezing temperatures of the water in summer. But in winter, the lake lives up to its name. For this lake never freezes, and more - the scenic conditions ensure that the sky above the lake, which is located in the valley, almost always remains free of clouds and lets a lot of sunshine through, creating a special climate where temperatures rarely fall below -10°C in winter. In other words, we can enjoy a lot of sunshine. Day 1: Arrival On the first day we don't plan anything special. Now it's time to arrive, meet people and relax after the flight. Day 2: Viewpoint To start our tour we will drive to a viewpoint above Cholponata and have a look at the Kyrgyz mountain kingdom from above. From here we will see the "pearl of Kyrgyzstan" - the Issyk-Kul - in its full splendor. When we have taken plenty of photos and frozen enough, we head to the local hot springs to warm up. We make such heat stops at the end of the day a tradition on our tour to keep our warm-cold balance. I won't mention them all here in the description. Day 3: Mountain gorge Semönovskoe Our first big trip is to the mountain gorge Semönovskoe. This is the most popular mountain gorge on the north coast of Issyk-Kul. With every kilometer it changes and shows many faces - sometimes it opens majestic expanses, sometimes we pass narrow alleys, sometimes a birch forest and behind the next bend gigantic blue firs tower above us. And at the end of the route, an emerald green lake awaits us, resting idyllically in its valley here. Day 4: Cholponata This day we spend in Cholponata. Here we visit the petroglyph garden, where stones from the region have been collected, on which prehistoric Kirghiz once left their prehistoric emojis for us as messages. We also learn a bit more about the roots of the Kyrgyz people in the elaborately constructed open-air cultural center, which is not as dull as it sounds. But the ultimate highlight of the day is the boat ride across the clashing blue of the Issyk Pulse. And as funny as the Kyrgyz are sometimes, they figured that barbecuing on the boat would definitely go down well. So we have shashlik on the boat. For those who, like me, don't eat meat, there is an alternative. Day 5: Moving to Karakol We pack our things and move on - to Karakol. This is done with a stopover at the hot springs of Chon-Urükty.

Day 6, 7, 9, 11: Ski slope The ski slope in Karakol is quite small (20 km slope length, 1150 m altitude difference, 4 lifts), but it is one of the best in Kyrgyzstan, among other things because it is not too crowded - Karakol is a small town, the area is quite sparsely populated and it is at least six hours drive to the capital, so this ski slope is spared from big crowds. (It can't be compared to our ski slopes in Europe, for ski crazy people it would probably be nothing, I say openly. The skiing is a side highlight of this tour for not very demanding skiers or beginners). We spend 3-4 days of our stay in Karakol on the ski slopes. Besides skis, you can alternatively rent snowboards here. (Prices below in the text.) For those who, like me, can not and do not like skiing, there is then something alternative. For example, I would like to go sledding or start a small snowmobile tour. And after so much fun and games in the cold snow, it is traditional to go to the hot springs or sauna. Day 8: Mountain gorge Jety-Oguz Of course, we will admire the gorgeous winter mountain landscapes of Kyrgyzstan not only from the ski slopes, but also take time for hiking and Kyrgyzstan photo safari through the mountains. Today our destination will be the picturesque mountain gorge Jety-Oguz. Here we will see the "Seven Bulls", the "Broken Heart" and the "Red Dragon" or in other words the aesthetics of the red mountains covered with snow. Day 10: Chon-Ashuu Mountain Pass One of the highlights of our tour will be the drive up the mountain pass Chon-Ashuu. Here we will come to the altitude of 3800 meters and definitely everything around us will be just white. Once I was already here in summer. On that day it snowed so much here that we couldn't even get to the pass. The more excited I am now about the view here. (Day 11: Alternatively to skiing we can spend our last day in another way. There may still be wishes that we can implement depending on budget and group dynamics. We will then discuss this on site). Day 12: Departure to Bishkek Here our tour will unfortunately come to an end. I hope to send you home with the best impressions and memories of Kyrgyzstan. Prices ski slope: Ski pass: 9€/day (12€/day on weekends) Ski / Snowboard rental: 10-15€/day